WIRED Magazine reports: Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures.
You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web. And you are not alone.
This is not a trivial distinction. Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule. And it’s the world that consumers are increasingly choosing, not because they’re rejecting the idea of the Web but because these dedicated platforms often just work better or fit better into their lives (the screen comes to them, they don’t have to go to the screen). The fact that it’s easier for companies to make money on these platforms only cements the trend. Producers and consumers agree: The Web is not the culmination of the digital revolution.
Taking a tangent on this story. I think that this is a harbinger: the use of video via private web to distribute proprietary information; impacting the populous' already shrinking capacity to comprehend the written word.
My thought is that the written word will be replaced by videos i.e., the dumbing down of information using vids to establish a common denominator eg. in education, beginning with adolescents, eventually adults. High school and college via video format - Sit at home and learn. Take tests etc. Get a degree online. Betcha WalMart will be a major player in 7 years? Maybe we'll be able to get rid of unions once WM takes over.
We're regressing... Neanderthals used pictures right?
